I ride with some guys that do not do anything to their bikes, & then they put them thru overheating, low oil, flat tires, radiator full of mud, fluids & filters are dirty on there machines & yet they keep going thru the water,mud & dusty trails.
So when they complain when they have a problem ( I just laugh).

Its amazing what a little maintenance will do for a bike.

I myself believe in preventative maint before each ride. If you take an $ 7500.00 machine out & rip thru the woods,water,mud,leaves,trail dust & all of the other elements it aint going to last very long if you do not take care of it.

My opinion is if you do not take care of it-- expect problems & it will be your own fault.

 

I'm sorry but I'm going to use this thread to vent my frustrations.

Yes, the Polaris Sportsman's are BIG and BAD, they will pull anything, climb anything, and go anywhere, but if you think for one second that they are better built than a Honda you are either kidding yourself or in denial!

My 2003 SP 700 has NOT held up anything like the Honda's I've had, and there's been a bunch. Keep in mind that my 700 never leaves my yard! I have 4 acres of MOWED yard that we ride on. Its never been mistreated, in deep mud or water etc.

At 275 miles I had to replace both lower CV boots, now at 600 miles the pipe brackets are broke or loose, the carb mount is broke, its stuck in AWD most of the time and the thing doesn't run smooth at all. The whole thing rattles like gravels in a beer can. And yes I have tightened bolts and taken action to try and fix theses problems, but the point is I shouldn't have to.

I don't see how the SP's hold up at all when they are out on the trail getting abused. If I had it to do over I would never have gotten the 700.

 

To be honest I would guess you got a lemon. Sorry to hear about your troubles.
I have a 2002 --500 Sportsman with 1100 miles & I have not had to do anything that was Polaris related.( Knock on wood).I put some inner strut seals in because they were leaking which was my fault.

 

A friend of mine had around a 97 sp500, that thing went through hell until it was ripped off 11/2 years ago. The machine never left him or anybody in the woods. This guy was not big on maintainance and never broke down. That is the reason i bought one. I own a Honda CR 250 dirtbike and know a lot of people with hondas and as far as there not breaking, if you ride hard they will break. I was pro Honda for many years but not now. As I said the polaris last weekend never missed a beat there were 21 machines there and 80% were polaris and they were still running at the end of the day.

 

What I don't understand is why people have to bash each others quads????? It doesn't make sense.....I mean, ride what you like. Often when someone else bashes another, they are trying to make up for a lack of something????????????????? Remember..........when someone starts off by saying......"I have a friend of a friend of an uncle who has .....laddie........laddie.....da. Who cares. Just ride what you have or get what you want and stop bashing.

IF YOU BASH.....YOU MUST BE TRASH!!!!!!!

 

As far as bashing goes I am only stating what i seen. The porpuse of this is to get peoples opion of products and there experiences with them. Some people my cry but that is life. One way to look at machines is see how good friends, family, or any person you meet with a machine likes there machine and the problems they had with it. You cannot rely on dealers, or magizines because they will sell you anything. If people did not have opinions this would be a borrring place. I got a lot of - about buying a polaris, so I am just stating what I have seen and am expressing my opinion on my machine. They are all good until they break and I seen three hondas break before my polaris did. People talk about the reliability of honda and polaris being unreliable so i thought the polaris guys would get a kick out of hearing about my weekend.... SORRY IF I OFFENNED ANYONE

 

sounds like polaris has a lot of lemons!

 

What are you doing over here on the Polaris forum anyway?

 

I think hes had to many mushrooms and got lost [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img].

 

i think honestly hondas are the best built atvs out there and i would have gotten myself one of those if it had 14 inches of GC IRS on the 500cc model disk brakes (04) nice stock tires steel rims belt drive YES belt drive true AWD .... the list goes on that polaris has the better quality but hondas are better built so where is this going?